The balance in the excess crude account (ECA) has dropped from $2.319 billion in November to $631 million in December.
Addressing the media after the resumed meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja yesterday, the permanent secretary in the ministry of finance, Mr. Mahmoud Dutse, explained that some withdrawals were made by the federal government from the ECA to settle the last tranche of the Paris Club Refund.
“The balance in the ECA is $631m. The final payment for the Paris Club Refund to states was made and the figure was deducted and that’s what accounts for the difference,” he said.
The permanent secretary who did not give the amount withdrawn added that FAAC got an approval from President Muhammadu Buhari and the federal executive council before making the withdrawal.
“A decision was taken to make this refund and part of that decision is that the refund should be funded from the ECA. The federal executive council, the President approved the money,” he stressed.
But from the balance of $2.319 billion as at FAAC meeting on November 25, about $1.68 billion might have been withdrawn between then and now.
The accountant general of the federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, was not also forthcoming with how much was taken.
Instead, he said due process was followed before the withdrawal was made.
“You can go and find out from the National Assembly if we got approval for it but due process was followed before the fund was released,” he said.
Meanwhile, FAAC said it allocated a total of N812.762 billion to the federal, states and local councils as revenue that accrued to the Federation Account for November 2018.
Spokesman in the office of the accountant general of the federation, Mr. Oise Johnson said in a statement that gross statutory revenue received for the month was N649.629 billion.
He added that “this sum is lower than the N682.161 billion received in the previous month by N32.533 billion.”
He gave the breakdown of the total distributable revenue as comprising the Statutory Revenue of N649.629 billion, Gross Value Added Tax of N92.079 billion, Forex Equalisation of N70 billion and An Exchange Gain of N1.055 billion.
From the gross statutory revenue, the federal government received N280.913 billion representing 52.68 per cent; states, N142.483 billion representing 26.72 per cent; local governments, N109.848 billion representing 20.60 per cent and oil producing states, N47.882 billion representing 13 per cent derivation revenue.
Furthermore, the breakdown of distribution to the three tiers from the VAT was federal government, N13.259 billion representing 15 per cent; states, N44.198 billion representing 50 per cent and local governments, N30.938 billion representing 35 per cent.
